FIRST LAWSUIT FILED OVER BLUE BELL LISTERIA INFECTION

  

The first lawsuit involving Blue Bell Ice Cream was filed on Tuesday in Federal Court  in Austin by an ex-Houstonian who claims he became sick with a listeria infection after eating Blue Bell products.

The amount being sought is undisclosed.

According to the Austin American Statesman, thirty-two-year old David Philip Schokley, as associate executive director of a retirement community, alleges that he became ill after consuming Blue Bell products at work. The lawsuit claims that the ice cream came from the Blue Bell plant in Oklahoma.

The lawsuit also claims that after eating several contaminated Blue Bell products, bacteria from the ice cream infected his blood and “migrated to his brain, where it caused extensive damage, leaving him unconscious and near death.”

In 2013, Schokley called 911 after suffering a severe headache and nausea. He was released from the hospital after being told he was only experiencing a migraine.

Later that day he was found “unresponsive, pale, febrile, and in clear respiratory distress,” according to the lawsuit.

Schokley was diagnosed with listeria meningitis with encephalitis based on a test that found Listeria in his brain and spinal fluid.

He was given neurological and rehabilitation therapies, and, according to the lawsuit, suffers from brain damage, physical injuries, motor skill impairment, and others infirmities which will last “the rest of his life.”

He is currently living in Maryland with his parents.

Blue Bell issued a recall of its products in late April after the Food and Drug Administration linked ten listeria cases and three deaths to Blue Bell products.